Wikipedia talk:Featured article candidates/Flag of Singapore/archive2

Moved from main page, alt text

 * Alt text done; thanks. Alt text is present (thanks), but it has some problems. The main problem is that the alt text often contains information that is not about the visual appearance of the image, and cannot be verified by a non-expert reader who is viewing only the image.
 * The problem begins with the first image, of the flag; here the alt text is "Flag of Singapore" but that is of little use to a visually impaired reader. Normally this alt text should be a description of the flag, but since the adjacent text already does that I suggest changing it to "See adjacent text." (By the way, why is the flag's description repeated twice in adjacent text? Once in the 1st paragraph, and once in the infobox. Surely once is enough.)
 * File:FIAV 110000.svg has alt text "Civil and state flag" that has nothing to do with the image's appearance, and which apparently is a duplication of adjacent text. I suggest marking this image with "linkalt" as per WP:ALT , since the image contains no useful information that is not already present in adjacent text.
 * File:IFIS Normal.svg has alt text "Normal or de jure version of flag" that (again) has nothing to do with the image's appearance, and appears to be an explanation of the image. This image should be treated like File:FIAV 110000.svg: that is, it should be marked with "linkalt" and adjacent text should be placed near to it, explaining it.
 * File:Flag of the British Straits Settlements (1874-1942).svg has alt text that assumes unlikely expertise on the part of the visually impaired reader. Most readers won't know what a British Blue Ensign looks like, or what the badge of the Straits Settlements looks like. As a rule, alt text should not contain proper names; please see WP:ALT .
 * There are several other phrases in the alt text that cannot be verified by a non-expert who is looking only at the images, and which therefore need to be reworded or removed as per WP:ALT. These include "During national holidays", "is ever present, even handed out as favors", "A Singapore based airplane", "During parades, military aircraft", "in Singapore" (in "giving a speech in Singapore"), "A home in Singapore", "Istana Park", "The standard of the President of Singapore", "The civil ensign of Singapore", "Flag for private sea use", "The Republic of Singapore Navy ensign", "Flag for military sea use".
 * Eubulides (talk) 09:30, 19 November 2009 (UTC)
 * It is the MOS for the flag articles to include the design of the flag in both the lead and the infobox. Redundant I know, but many flag articles are not as developed as, lets say, Japan, Canada and a few others I personally touched. I am still working on the alt images (it is new for me, so I thank you for teaching me on what it is and how it is supposed to be done. I will try and have others look at it and see if they can give something that sounds laymanish. User:Zscout370 (Return Fire) 17:53, 19 November 2009 (UTC)
 * Thanks for clarifying that point about the MoS. Well, anyway, we don't need to repeat that text a third time, in the alt text. I fixed this problem by modifying Infobox Flag so that the flag's default alt text is "See adjacent text." This seems appropriate since any call to that infobox should also specify Design. You can override the default alt text with a new Alt parameter, but I don't think overriding should be needed often.
 * All the alt text problems mentioned above are now fixed; thanks.
 * However, two new problems have cropped up. Flag of Singapore  refers to two images File:FIAV 000100.svg and File:FIAV_000001.svg whose alt text is not verifiable from the image. For example, the first image's alt text contains the phrase "this flag is used on sea by private persons or groups" but that is not obvious to a non-expert who is looking only at the image. Please move this phrase out of the alt text and into a caption in the nearby text, and similarly for the other image.
 * Eubulides (talk) 20:45, 19 November 2009 (UTC)
 * Removed images in question, the text in the description will explain it to the layman. User:Zscout370 (Return Fire) 21:15, 19 November 2009 (UTC)